Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Is skin bleaching acceptable in today's world?

When I was in Zimbabwe I would often walk around town just to relax and kill time. During one of my afternoon strolls I was horrified to see a few stores still selling skin bleaching products. I couldn't fathom how in this day and age people would actually apply these products to go from dark to light skin. To be fair (pun intended) many African and Indian countries still continue to sell skin bleaching products.

I was absolutely intrigued by the story of kwaito star Mshoza who has undergone multiple plastic surgery operations and has embarked on the dangerous process of bleaching her skin. As you can see by the cover of the local South African magazine above the headline states "I was tired of being ugly" This is seemingly her reason for trying to to look "Christina Aguilera white". Her words, not mine.

Mshoza before skin bleaching

Mshoza after skin bleaching

In the most recent issue of Drum Magazine her husband spills the beans on their not so perfect union and claims that he has moved out and leaving her because of her lying and deceitful ways. He says he did not "marry a white woman" and contrary to Mshoza's earlier statement her businessman hubby does not agree with skin lightning procedures. In the article I also learned that she tried to commit suicide by taking a plethora of pills, to which her husband says "it was just a publicity stunt".

Now please excuse me while I pass judgement on this woman. Clearly she has psychological issues that need to be addressed. I blame the doctor who is giving the skin bleaching treatment to her and enabling this reckless behaviour. I understand that plastic surgery exists and that people have the right to change their appearances but this just seems over the top. When is it ever ok for a black person to say they want to look white? In my mind never! Black is beautiful.

What do you think? Is it ok to alter one's appearance by bleaching one's skin?

15 comments

Well tanning is also as equally as bad, but I would almost say it's the lesser of two evils. The truth you can stop tanning if you decide to, but can you reverse the effects of bleaching your skin? I am not so sure!

I think that, as long as it doesn't affect our health and is proven safe, there's no problem with altering one's skin color. That woman in the photo looks gorgeous. I just hope that people would accept her personal choice of changing her skin tone.

If a person wishes to alter their appearance, that's their personal choice. We all alter ourselves in some form or another over the course of our life to appear more attractive. That's just part of being an ever-changing species.

However, I do think there's a point where it crosses a line into unhealthy and even outright dangerous. When someone is willing to go through that, to drastically alter themselves to become almost someone else entirely, neverminding the long-term negative effects of such a choice, then, at that point, I agree that there has to be some personal issues that need to be addressed, especially on the side of self-esteem.

Beauty does not have one image, it does not have one standard to which everything else must be measured by to be deemed beautiful or not. Beauty is all about personal perception and opinion. In my opinion, everyone is beautiful is some way, shape, or form. I just think it's sad that the lady mentioned in this article couldn't see the beauty that already existed with her, before all the surgeries and bleaching.

the issue is the reason why she feels she needs to be white to be beautiful. i believe black and white is beautiful, u should love yourself for the colour your were born, it is only out of the underling racial hate that is fueling this self hate, like it or not this is more than someone self hating it is a reflection of the impacts of slavery and other negative ideas we foster in this culture and fail to recognize we walk blinded by illusions, time to wake u and appreciate you for you.

in reply to Andy, what is influencing your perception? Are we just individuals that are unaffected by the existential world and the perceptions attributed to ourselves, how do we ascertain that it is truly and wholly the perception of our own with no influences? this i find truly hard to believe. given the nature of the topic, why has it become so normal for it to be ok that we want to be something other than ourselves when will people learn to love themselves.

As much as we want to pass judgement on this lady she has the right to do what makes her feel good and better about herself no matter what we may think, with that being said...she felt that being black, brown skinned was ugly, lets talk about that for a moment. Society tells us as brown skinned ppl that we are not desireable, and that yes, sometimes even ugly or not as beautiful as our white or light counterparts this does over time cause for self hatred and self doubt...its a cycle and too bad that she fell victim to such an elaborate ploy to steal her blackness that she was born with naturally. I blame society, magazines, media, doctors, friends, family, and her. Sad but its life and how we choose to see ourselves is pretty much our own choice so...thats it. Tasha